The action plan outlines more than 40 government data sets to be made public or expanded in 2014 and 2015, including a new Small Business Administration database, digitized Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection, Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster data and Federal Drug Agency adverse drug event data. The White House commits to “support innovators and improve open data based on feedback” in the plan. Agencies will also ask for public feedback to determine which data sets to release first.

The Obama administration has launched a number of Open Data Initiatives over the last several years. “These efforts have helped unlock troves of valuable data — that taxpayers have already paid for — and are making these resources more open and accessible to innovators and the public,” Federal Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel and Chief Technology Officer Todd Park wrote in a blog post announcing the new plan.

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Late last week, the White House released its second Open Government Partnership National Action Plan (NAP), setting forth 23 new or expanded commitments in open government for Administration to undertake in the remainder of President Obama’s term. The Open Government Partnership was established in July 2011 as a global effort to encourage transparent, effective, and accountable governance, with more than 60 member-nations today. The United States released its first Open Government National Action Plan in September 2011 and since that time, AALL has worked closely with a number of open government groups to evaluate its contents and implementation and to make recommendations for the second plan.

As we previously reported, the second NAP includes commitments to open data, increasing fiscal and corporate transparency, advancing citizen engagement, more effectively managing public resources, and modernizing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Other new and notable commitments include to “transform the security classification system” based on the principle that “classification must… be kept to the minimum required to meet national security needs….” To that end, the Administration will establish a new interagency Classification Review Committee as recommended by the Public Interest Declassification Board last year. On his Secrecy News blog, Steven Aftergood offers an analysis. New declassification tools, including new document analysis and monitoring systems, could help work through a massive backlog of requests. The inclusion of surveillance issues in the second NAP is also noteworthy in light of the Administration’s position on the Snowden leaks and NSA disclosure. In the plan, the White House pledges to “increase Transparency of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Activities” by releasing annual public reports on the government’s use of “certain national security authorities.” These reports will include the total number of orders issued during the prior twelve-month period and the number of targets affected by them. The Director of National Intelligence will also continue to review and, where appropriate, declassify information related to foreign intelligence surveillance programs, per the second NAP. Finally, the White House also pledges to consult with stakeholders and seek input from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to ensure an appropriate balance between the protection of privacy and national security interests.

While not revolutionary, the second National Action Plan is an important and ambitious commitment to transparent and accountable government. AALL applauds this next step and looks forward to working with the Administration and other open government advocates on the implementation of these ideals.

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During last week’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) meeting in London, the Obama administration released a preview of its U.S. Open Government National Action Plan 2.0 (NAP). While the second NAP will not be finalized until December 2013, six new commitments to further advance the goals of transparency and accountability in the federal government were announced. They include expanding open data, increasing fiscal and corporate transparency, advancing citizen engagement, more effectively managing public resources, and most significantly, modernizing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In the White House’s own words, “the FOIA encourages accountability through transparency and represents a profound national commitment to open government principles. Improving FOIA administration is one of the most effective ways to make the U.S. Government more open and accountable.” In its new commitment, the administration pledges to implement a consolidated online FOIA portal that allows the public to submit a request to any Federal agency from a single site, develop common FOIA regulations and practices across agencies, and create an interagency working group and advisory committee to improve FOIA processing. FOIA professionals and agency staff will also receive improved FOIA trainings.

The draft OGP plan also includes a commitment to re-launch Data.gov with an expanded index of all agency data sets and special campaigns to unlock agricultural, nutrition and disaster-related data. In an effort to make government data more accessible and useful, federal agencies will also be required to develop an inventory of their data and publish a list of datasets that are public or can be made public. Under the title “Managing Government Data as a Strategic Asset”, the plan pledges that agencies will also develop new mechanisms to solicit public feedback regarding open government data.

AALL applauds the administration for their continued commitment to transparency reforms and we look forward to the release of the second National Action Plan. Access to government information is crucial to a just, democratic society and informed citizenry. AALL will continue to work with the administration and other organizations to promote policies, regulations, and guidance which encourage openness, transparency, and public participation.

On May 23, the White House launched its new Digital Government Strategy, an initiative aimed at improving the way government agencies utilize new tools and technologies to serve the public. The plan lays out clear-cut procedures for making public information open and machine readable within one year, allowing Americans to engage with their government more easily.

In a memorandum introducing the new strategy developed by the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), Steven VanRoekel, President Obama directs each major federal agency to make two of their key services available on mobile devices within the next 12 months and to make “applicable” government information open and machine-readable by default. The strategy intends to “ensure that agencies use emerging technologies to serve the public as effectively as possible” and will require agencies “to adopt new standards for making applicable Government information open and machine-readable by default.” The memo calls on agencies to publicly report on their progress.

Further, the strategy promises to “transform Data.gov into a data and API (application programming interfaces) catalog that in real time pulls directly from agency websites,” as summarized in a blog post by VanRoekel. An excerpt from the report explains:

Rather than thinking primarily about the final presentation—publishing web pages, mobile applications or brochures—an information-centric approach focuses on ensuring our data and content are accurate, available, and secure. We need to treat all content as data—turning any unstructured content into structured data—then ensure all structured data are associated with valid metadata. Providing this information through web APIs helps us architect for interoperability and openness, and makes data assets freely available for use within agencies, between agencies, in the private sector, or by citizens.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will formulate a government-wide policy pertaining to API and systems will be required to support access to high-value open data. The report also outlines plans to set up a Digital Services Innovation Center to be carried out by the General Services Administration through a centralized effort to help agencies build out shared solutions for a “citizen-centric” approach to the web.

The scope of this new digital government strategy is laudable. The White House has put forth an ambitious and progressive strategy that has the potential to improve government transparency and accessibility. However, there are several omissions from the report that are cause for concern. Though leaders in producing, disseminating and preserving electronic information, the Government Printing Office and the Library of Congress are never mentioned in the report, and the National Archives and Records Administration is mentioned only once. NARA is charged with working with the Federal CIO Council and National Institute of Standards and Technology to “develop guidelines for standardized implementation of digital privacy controls and educate agency privacy and legal officials on options for addressing digital privacy, records retention, and security issues.”

Most troubling, the report puts forth a strategy for access to “high-quality digital government data” but does not address the need to ensure that the information is trustworthy, accurate, preserved and permanently accessible to the public, with explicit procedures to do so.

In all, the Digital Government Strategy is an important commitment by the White House to greater government transparency and more accessible information. However, to adequately create a digital government, the White House must take into account issues of the lifecycle of electronic information before it can offer a truly comprehensive solution.

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Last Friday, the White House released a Status Report on Open Government. The report highlights the many initiatives the Obama Administration has undertaken to increase government transparency since taking office two and a half years ago. For example:

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): The President’s January 2009 Memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act and Attorney General Holder’s guidance, which stated that agencies should adopt a presumption of disclosure. These memos have resulted in more information being released to the public and the reduction of FOIA backlogs by 10%.

Classification: The President’s December 2009 Executive Order 13526 on “Classified National Security Information,” which streamlined the classification process and created the National Declassification Center at the National Archives and Records Administration, and his November 2010 Executive Order 13556 on Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), which established a program for managing all unclassified information.

There is, of course, much work to be done to increase government openness. As the report states, “Open government is a means, not an end.”

One important initiative outlined in the new Plan is to “Modernize Management of Government Records.” Acknowledging the current challenges associated with the management of digital records, the White House has committed to:

Reform Records Management Policies and Practices Across the Executive Branch. We will launch an initiative that will recommend reforms and require reporting on current policies and practices. The initiative will consider changes to existing laws and ask how technology can be leveraged to improve records management while making it cost-effective. The initiative will seek a reformed, digital-era, governmentwide records management framework that promotes accountability and performance.

The White House will also continue to work to improve the administration of FOIA; support the declassification of the backlog of 385 million pages for public release by December 2013; work to ensure agencies implement their Open Government Plans; strengthen whistleblower protections for federal government employees; improve public participation on Regulations.gov; and involve the public in developing new policies to reform federal websites.

We commend the Administration for its commitment to open government and its continued work to ensure greater government transparency, public participation, and collaboration.

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Today at 4pm EDT, the White House will hold an online chat to solicit ideas from the public on how to improve federal websites. Speakers include White House Director of Digital Strategy, Macon Phillips; Federal Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra (who will soon be leaving the White House to take a joint fellowship at Harvard); and Director of the General Services Administration’s Center for Excellence in Digital Government, Sheila Campbell. This discussion is part of the President’s new Campaign to Cut Waste, which includes the goal of consolidating and eliminating unnecessary federal websites.

We encourage law librarians to participate in this online chat to ask questions and provide your perspectives on how the government can improve federal websites. You can participate by:

In addition, the White House has committed to posting a list of all “dot gov” domains and will invite comments on how to ensure the public has access to the government information they need. We will let you know when that list is published and will reach out to you for feedback.

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On November 4, President Obama released a new Executive Order to establish a uniform framework for the use of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) – a confusing system of control markings agencies have developed that includes hundreds of designations that do not formally classify information but keep it out of the hands of the public (such as “For Official Use Only” (FOUO), “Official Use Only” (OUO), and “Limited Official Use” (LOU)).

The new Executive Order creates a uniform system for managing CUI, and establishes the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as the Executive Agent to implement the order and ensure compliance.

The Executive Order requires that:

Within 180 days, each agency must review all markings used by the agency designation CUI and submit to NARA a catalogue of proposed categories and subcategories of CUI.

NARA shall approve all categories of CUI to be applied uniformly throughout the Executive Branch.

Within 1 year, NARA must establish a public CUI registry that includes all authorized CUI categories.

For the next five years, NARA must complete an annual report on the status of agency implementation of the order. After that, NARA must complete biannual reports.

The Executive Order also states that if there is doubt about whether to mark information as CUI, the agency shall err on the side of openness. AALL commends the Obama Administration for taking this significant step toward reforming policies governing control markings, thereby ensuring greater public access to Controlled Unclassified Information.